Matt Stinchcomb is not unlike a lot of Georgia fans as it pertains to Saturday’s G-Day game at Sanford Stadium.
There’s a lot that he wants to see for himself.
From the offensive line, to the receivers, to the defensive line, outside linebackers and secondary, Stinchcomb, who is part of the SEC Network crew televising the 2 p.m. contest, is anxious to see for himself.
“The lines of scrimmage are halfway fun to watch, although "televisionally" (sic), nobody is going to care,” he said. “Obviously, the receivers, the guys who go out and compete; I want to see that as well.”
Stinchcomb, a UGA Circle of Honor and College Football Hall of Fame member, spoke to UGASports Friday morning to offer his thoughts about G-Day and the Bulldog football program.
Naturally, a lot of Stinchcomb’s focus plans to be on the offensive line, a unit he feels can be one of Georgia’s best in recent memory.
“If (Andrew) Thomas can stay healthy, along with Isaiah Wilson, you’re talking about the best pair of tackles that Georgia has had since probably my brother (Jon Stinchcomb) and George Foster. Or, I could make a case for when Trinton Sturdivant and Clint Boling were there together, although I don’t think Clint spent a lot of time at tackle,” Stinchcomb said. “So, because of that, it’s hard to gauge, but George Foster was the 20th pick in the first round, Jon was the second pick in the second round and there aren't a lot of times when you’ve got two on the same line; there’s a chance Georgia does right now. Andrew Thomas, if he can stay healthy, is a finished product.”
Now, about the running game. Stinchcomb has questions there.
“We became a heavy, zone-schemed, rushing offense, and I was really surprised by that. I’ll be curious to see if we get back to more toss-crunch, toss-crack into the boundary. That’s a hallmark of the Georgia rushing attack: to the short side of the field,” he said. “That scheme vanished last year. That’s not to say the running game wasn’t as good, and I’m all for adapting to your personnel, so was it offensive line-driven; was it back-driven? I don’t know, what was it? It just kind of disappeared.”
He has no questions regarding quarterback Jake Fromm.
“Nope. Not a single thing. There is nothing Jake Fromm can show me tomorrow, good or bad, that is going to change what I think about Jake Fromm,” Stinchcomb said. “He’s among the best quarterbacks in the conference that never gets talked about. He may be the most overlooked great player in this conference.”
Stinchcomb feels the media needs to shoulder some of the blame for that.
Although Fromm might not post the flashiest numbers, all he does is make plays and put the Bulldogs in position to score touchdowns.
“It’s because sportswriters are lazy, that’s why. Not just sportswriters, the sports media is driven by the box score, and Jake Fromm, other than the completion percentage, does not put together a pretty box score,” he said. “There’s not a single game you can point to, other than the SEC Championship, where you’re like 'Oh, my gosh, Jake Fromm, lookee there!’ He had a lull last year when I don’t think he played particularly well, relative to the standard he has set, but he is a really, really good quarterback.”
He doesn’t plan on changing his opinion anytime soon.
“One thing that would change my opinion is if he’s coming off the field tomorrow and he’s getting an earful from a coach or something, because he’s misread the defense or he’s got them in the wrong play, that would shock me,” Stinchcomb said. “But the odds of that happening are about the same as Coach Smart showing up in an Easter Bunny suit tomorrow. He might make a physical [error], but from what I’ve seen this spring, he’s more dialed in than ever, which is scary.”
Defensively, nose tackle Jordan Davis and defensive tackle Tyler Clark will be under Stinchcomb’s microscope, albeit for different reasons.
“Jordan Davis sure did come in handy,” he said. “Tyler Clark needs to take the next step. You’ve been hearing about him and hearing about him; we need to see it consistently. I think he’s a really good player.”
Count Stinchcomb on board with Smart when it comes to creating the kind of defensive havoc Georgia’s head coach has talked about throughout the entire spring.
According to Stinchcomb, that’s an area that the Bulldogs can indeed stand to improve on from a season. How Georgia goes about doing that is the question he wants answered.
“You need negative plays. You’ve got to get offenses off-schedule, maybe now more than ever, because of these gateway offenses that say if you get four yards, now you’re into their tempo. Some of these defenses--and this is something (Smart) talked about last year--are meeting with these other teams, among them Clemson, and how they bring pressure--A LOT--and they got burnt, quite a bit,” Stinchcomb said. “But the negative yardage plays, the risk was worth the reward. So, with Coach (Dan) Lanning and Coach (Glenn) Schumann, I guess the idea will be to try and generate that. Do you generate with your pressure, or do you generate with just your down players, your front four, three? That’s the question I’ve got for them--when you talk about havoc, how are we going to get there?”
